Full Garden Tour 🌿 Late April 2026 | Portland Zone 8b/9a

It's been three weeks since the last walk-through, and the garden is going full steam ahead. This is the full circuit—front parking strips, neighbor garden, sunny slope, driveway-turned-side-garden, studio courtyard, and the shady back path—filmed April 24, 2026 in my NE Portland garden, USDA Zone 8b/9a. I'm not stopping to name every plant (there are hundreds), but I'll call things out when they catch my eye. If you spot something you want to know more about, leave a comment with a time stamp and I'll do my best. A few things I get into: color echo strategy and why it keeps a plant-dense garden from reading as a jumbled mess; my clematis situation (dozens of them, just getting going); the new back courtyard seating area that's already earning its keep in April; and the foliage tapestry I'm always adding to along the back path. The garden is my living laboratory—a 50×100-foot NE Portland lot that's been intensively planted for 25 years, with narrow side gardens, wide parking strips, and plenty of places to actually sit and enjoy it. A lot of what you see here finds its way onto eGardenGo—plant combinations, individual profiles, and downloadable planting plans for Pacific Northwest gardens. *🌿 Explore plant combinations at eGardenGo: https://www.egardengo.com/explore-plant-combinations* Curious what this garden looked like last April—or any other time? The full garden playlist has tours across multiple seasons and years: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuvh7g5Kh60j5Z16tsuwY0n67948RAZH TABLE OF CONTENTS: 0:00 Introduction & overview 1:54 Front parking strip — gardening to the street 2:20 Garden history: from juniper to 25 years of evolution 3:43 What to expect from a full tour (plant ID notes) 5:00 Backlit scenes: barberry, crepe myrtle 'Zuni' 5:43 Front entry color story: iris, heuchera, hebe, dark hydrangea 7:05 Color echo strategy — how it holds everything together 8:59 Clematis 'Blue Dancer' & neighbor garden collaboration 10:12 Plant range: from collector-y to common 11:04 Mukdenia & bold-vs.-fine foliage contrast 12:26 Front seating area & the clematis takeover zone 12:53 The former driveway & sunniest part of the garden 13:38 Neighbor garden — quick walk-through 15:12 Heading to the back garden 15:56 South side garden & steel edging Q&A 17:04 Early blooming Clematis on the south fence 17:44 Containers, structures & "ladies in waiting" 20:06 Studio courtyard & the new seating area 24:01 Back garden color connections: Weigela and Clematis 'Asao' 25:46 Back path foliage tapestry — Carex, ferns, Selaginella, and more! 28:25 Rhododendron makinoi & back path details 29:24 Back garden overview: loquat, Stewartia, Eucryphia 30:41 Side yard & the clematis-to-come 31:09 Wrap-up & eGardenGo